If you pay attention to ads, you know there are subliminal messages. Even if you don't, your brain picks up on them. Typically, these messages are sex-related, but not always. Blogger Copyranter, who's apparently been an ad copywriter for 18 years, sure notices them.

On a post titled "Today's Blowjob Ad", Copyranter pointed this this poster, which is part of a new UK campaign for Nvidia's GeForce GPUs. The ad agency is supposedly London's Alecoppe.

The top advert features an image from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

The ads have the tag, "The Most Realistic Ever" and are designed to contrast game realism with the back of some player's head. According to Copyranter, the second ad in the series, featuring a sumo wrestler, is less "blowjobby".

In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Guardian Stones give players special abilities. One stone can be activated at a time, and if you've played the game, you will be familiar with them.

These powers these stone offer exist only in Skyrim. The stones themselves seem to have a real-life counterpart.

Kotaku reader Brian, spotted this sea front monument in the Irish town Bundoran.

"The area is one of Ireland's primo surfing areas, with surfers from all around the world coming to the small town of Bundoran on the west coast of Ireland," wrote Brian, who blurred out his lady's face for privacy. "So I can only imagine that this is in fact the Surfer Stone giving users the power of Atlantic Wave Tamer!"

The work of artist Brendan McGloin, the stone sculpture dates from 2000 and is named Carraige na Nean, (Rock of the Birds). It may not be a real Guardian Stone, and it may not even be Skyrim's inspiration, but it's close to the real thing. Well, minus things like quick Magicka regeneration.

One PC gaming truism is that modders make magic, by altering the rules or looks of a vanilla game release into something shinier or more idiosyncratic. In the case of PC modder Xilver, the magic-making's literal.

A.K.A. Brian Rivers, Xilver made an insanely robust mod called Midas Magic: Spells of Aurum for Oblivion. It delivered more than 100 spells that let you conjure freeze rays, hail storms and creature summons to the game's Mages. Now, with the follow-up to Oblivion being a major PC phenomenon, Xilver's launching the spiritual sequel to Midas Magic for Skyrim, The trailer above shows of the formidable powers players will be able to wield with the mod for The Elder Scrolls V mod. You can grab Xilver's add-on here.

Some folks loved the latest Legend of Zelda game but weren't fond of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Others turned up their noses at Skyward Sword but embraced Bethesda's latest wholeheartedly. Somehow commenter Sloopydrew found himself disappointed with both games. In today's Speak Up on Kotaku we try to determine what sort of alien he is.

Am I the only one disappointed with both the most recent Elder Scrolls and recent Zelda game? I love both of those franchises and loved the last few games with a fanboy-like passion. But Skyward Sword and Skyrim — along with sharing a similar name — share the feeling of "sameness."

I just feel like I've played these games before and, when I did, they were better.

Every Elder Scrolls got better, for me, through Oblivion. Skyrim feels like a glitchy fetch quest with nothing new. Zelda got better for me through Windwaker. I still liked Twilight Princess, but Skyward Sword leaves me cold. Not to mention, popping in Windwaker after playing Skyward is startling, as Windwaker is clearly graphically superior, on top of being a better game.

Anyway, I didn't want to troll and I know I'm the odd man out on this, but I'm looking for anyone who agrees with me, just to validate that I'm not going crazy. I looked forward to both of these games, bought both on launch and have ended up finishing neither. I played some Skyrim last night and, as I have every time, shut it off about an hour in feeling bored and disappointed. I haven't even put Skyward Sword back on for at least a week. Probably more. I'm seriously doubting I'll even finish either of these games. Certainly startling, as I finished their predecessors more than once each.

About Speak Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot to say, and sometimes what they have to say has nothing to do with the stories we run. That's why we have a forum on Kotaku called Speak Up. That's the place to post anecdotes, photos, game tips and hints, and anything you want to share with Kotaku at large. Every weekday we'll pull one of the best Speak Up posts we can find and highlight it here.

Ever wonder how such a highly polished game as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim wound up with so many bugs and glitches? Dorkly has uncovered a completely fictional series of letters between Bethesda's Todd Howard and the lead developer that may explain the situation.

All it takes is one fussy lead programmer and a slightly grump project lead to turn an award-winning role-playing game into an award-winning role-playing game filled with humorous bugs and glitches. Just one simple internal memo sent on a bad day and everything goes spiraling out of control.

Luckily for Bethesda, no one cares if their games are full of bugs and glitches. Fake Todd should really just learn how to relax.

See what happens? Look what fake Todd made fake programmer do! Now everyone is bears. Hopefully this doesn't escalate any further.

Oh god.

Hit up the link for the full imaginary exchange. It seems completely crazy, but in an odd way it makes perfect sense.

Yes, this year a committee of readers that frequent our Speak Up forum decided to set up their own game of the year awards, naming them the Speakys in honor of their mutual gathering place. They developed a list of categories, nominated games, and determined the winners of each category, which you can see here.

From the winners of the individual categories a list of winners was formed, each eligible for the grand accolade: The 2011 Speaky Game of the Year Award.

Then there was a grand voting, and with more than twice the votes of its closest competitor (Kotaku's game of the year, Portal 2), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim came out on top.

Congratulations, Skyrim! We hereby crown you the official game of talkative mobs everywhere for 2011.